Yesterday marked my last open water trip for rainbows of the year.
Things have been busy in the Fougere house and finding the time (and a place) to keep my gear organized has been a challenge due to house renovations.
We received a good dump of snow recently and the weather forecast was not looking good for continued open water fishing, so off I went on my last trip of the year.
I quickly grabbed what I thought was everything, dusted the snow off my boat cover, then left for the lake. The thought of grabbing my rain jacket (which had my toque and casting gloves in it) crossed my mind before I went out the door. Unfortunately, I was in a rush to get to the lake before sunrise and forgot to grab my jacket.
On top of forgetting my rain jacket (wind breaker), I realized I was heading down a steeper than normal road with snow and ice covered roads to get to the gravel launch I wanted to try. The public boat launch is bad enough as it is and I was not willing to risk an icy cement boat launch with these cold temperatures.
Normally, my boat and trailer are put away at this time of the year as I chase coho salmon. This experience of pulling a boat trailer went well, but I’m hesitant to get too comfortable as I have minimal experience pulling a small boat trailer in the snow.
The launching of my trailer went smooth, except for my concern of freezing wheels and brakes, because I had to back my truck into the lake at the shallow launch. I would find out later that my brakes froze, but I was able to free them up when leaving.
As suspected, I had the whole lake to myself and did not see another boat on the water. It took me a while to find active fish. Once I did, I caught multiple fish in each location. The best part is that most of these fish were between 3 and 4 lbs. I believe some of them were between 5 and 6lbs, but I did not want to waste time weighing them as I was starting to get cold due to not having my wind breaker jacket.
The surface temperature was 40 degrees and the fish were fighting different than a week ago. They had more torque to their fight and were steadily pulling the boat in circles. Some of them jumped and others were rolling like a coho, but most of them were just pulling/swimming hard with the hook in their mouth.
Just as my first spot was starting to slow, the wind started blowing in from the north. A low lying snow cloud started moving in my direction and I started thinking about safety on the lake in freezing temperatures.
I fired up my motor and started making my way closer to the boat launch, but found myself slowing down as the wind and snow blowing in my direction made navigation and keeping warm difficult. I found the perfect speed which kept my bow in the air and sheltered me from the weather.
After catching half a dozen more fish, it was almost time to go as I was starting to think about cranking the heat in my truck and warming up my toes. My last fish was so hungry that it swallowed my spoon which made reaching the hooks with my pliers difficult. It did not appear to be hooked bad, but then all of a sudden the fish started rolling. With my pliers holding the hooks, it was too late to save the fish and release it.
Over the last couple weeks I have been experimenting with using barbless treble hooks. Single barbless hooks have always been my “go to” when practicing catch and release, because of my experience fishing salmon on our rivers and following the regulations. It has been a difficult transition for me, but I have been paying close attention to the differences and it appears to me that barbless treble hooks seem less lethal than longer single barbless hooks on trout. What are your thoughts on this?
It was tough to leave the lake as I knew that it would be another year before I returned. As I said good-bye, I prepared to climb the snow covered hill ahead of me. Thankfully, my truck and trailer stayed straight as I climbed to the top. When I hit the highway I thought about another unavoidable obstacle that I would soon face. Like I said, normally my boat and trailer are put away before the snow flies, but this year was different. The highways were wet and melting. One thought crossed my mind, salt. I installed new LED trailer lights on my boat trailer this year and I love them. My concern with traveling at this time of the year is salt on my trailer wires and corrosion. I’m hopeful that this one trip was not enough to cause any damage.
When I got home it was time to clean my fish. A trout fatality on Dragon Lake is something I never want to happen, but when it does I like to take the time to learn about what the fish was eating so I can improve next time. I was blown away at how full the stomach was. This fish had eaten at least 15 goldfish that I could see. Unbelievable! With these kind of feeding habits, I am hopeful that on top of the electrofishing program we will see trophy sized trout in Dragon Lake for years to come. This year, I noticed the fish were thicker, heavier and healthy looking than last year. If this is an indication of what we have coming in this fishery, then I’m excited for next year and will start counting the days until I get out and cast a spoon again for rainbows.